


Fast Cars & Christmas Carols - a Holiday Special

by hensku



Series: Race Drivers AU [1]
Category: Rammstein
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Attempt at Humor, Because I can't write a fic without angst, Christmas Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Richard needs a hug, Skiing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:34:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21888229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hensku/pseuds/hensku
Summary: As christmas is approaching, Till takes the whole gang on a skiing trip to the Alps. Includes ugly christmas sweaters, suspicious bottles of christmas glögg and an oddly shaped gingerbread.This is a little sequel to my fic "Fast cars and unfading scars", so I suggest you read the main fic first, because otherwise this will make no sense :)
Relationships: Richard Kruspe/Paul Landers
Series: Race Drivers AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1576711
Comments: 5
Kudos: 49





	Fast Cars & Christmas Carols - a Holiday Special

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I've never written anything even remotely humorous, so this might be a total catastrophe. But I had this idea immediately after I'd finished the main fic, and I just had to write this as a little "christmas present" for myself and for anyone who might be interested in this :)
> 
> This is set a couple of weeks after the events of the last chapter.

”There's no fucking way I'm going to wear that!”  
  
Richard was staring at the horrendous piece of clothing that Till was waving in front of him. It was a green sweater that had snowflakes, reindeers and all kinds of christmas ornaments scattered around it, and in the front stood ”RZK” in the ugliest font that existed.  
  
Till, you see, had insisted on getting christmas sweaters for the team. Apparently the idea was to take a picture of the whole gang wearing those sweaters, and use that picture as TL Motorsport's official christmas greeting that year. Richard didn't even know what had gotten Till into such festive spirits, because he'd never seen his boss wear anything other than black from head to toe. Everybody else had been on board with the idea from the start – especially Flake, who seemed to love his sweater with silver sequins way too much – but Richard just wasn't convinced. There's no way he would be forced into wearing that horrible excuse of clothing.  
  
”You have no choice, it's the team's order”, Till argued and tried to shove the sweater at Richard, who just snorted at his boss.  
  
”You can't say _team's order_ whenever it pleases you, and besides, we're on holiday now”, Richard added.  
  
”And who's paying for all of this?” Till reminded, to which Richard simply rolled his eyes because he'd run out of arguments. After all, his boss was telling the truth; Till had offered to take the whole gang on a skiing trip to the Swiss Alps, where they would also have the team's christmas party. So that's where they were; in a huge cabin that had the most incredible view over the beautiful village of Zermatt, arguing over _fucking christmas sweaters._  
  
”Richard c'mon”, Flake pleaded. ”It's not like that sweater is so different from some of your own shirts”, he teased and that earned a few giggles from the rest of the guys.  
  
”Fine! Make fun of my shirts all you want, at least I don't look like a walking disco ball”, Richard snapped and crossed his arms, pretending to be sulking.  
  
”Hey, there's nothing wrong with your shirts, and you can wear whatever you want”, Paul defended him as he walked over to Richard and wrapped his arms protectively around him, while shooting angry glares at the rest of the guys. Richard tried hard to keep his sulking face, but he couldn't stop the smile that was tugging on his lips; Paul always had that effect on him.  
  
”You two are so annoyingly adorable”, Schneider said and made a gagging sound. ”Speaking of adorable, there's some funny stuff about you guys on twitter”, he informed.  
  
”What do you mean?” Richard immediately asked, trying to look calm but the hint of concern in his voice didn't go unnoticed by Paul, and he tightened his grip on Richard's shoulder as a signal of comfort. Ever since the rumors of their relationship had begun to circle around, Richard had tried his best to avoid reading any articles or social media posts about them. He was nervous as hell, even though he didn't really have any reason to be; so far everybody had been incredibly supportive of their relationship.  
  
”There's this picture, you're holding hands in it and judging by people's comments, everybody thinks you're cute together”, Schneider explained with a grin, and Richard felt a relief spreading through his body.  
  
”There's even some talk about shipping you two”, Schneider continued.  
  
”Shipping? Where?” Paul asked with genuine confusion in his voice.  
  
Schneider looked like he was trying to hold back laughter. ”No, it means that they support your relationship”, he explained.  
  
”How do you know all this shit?” Paul asked and kept looking at Schneider with amusement.  
  
”Nevermind that”, Till interrupted their conversation, waving his neon green ski goggles at them. ”Time to hit the slopes!”  
  
  
***  
  
"Just promise that you won't laugh at me", Richard pleaded as he was staring at the ski lift with nervousness swirling in his stomach. The rest of the guys were already on their way up, but Richard had taken his time with his skiing gear, being purposefully slow on everything and basically just avoided going near the ski lift.  
  
Paul gave him a confused look. "Why would I laugh at you?"  
  
"Because I suck at skiing!” Richard groaned. ”I haven't even tried it in over ten years, not since..” he paused, debating if the story was something he even wanted to share. "Flake dragged me on a skiing trip with him once, and there was an incident with a ski lift and let's just say that I've never been so embarrased in my life...”  
  
"What happened?" Paul asked.  
  
Richard took a deep breath and reluctantly started explaining: "Well, I was on my way up and when it was time to let go of the ski lift, I managed to fall and my other ski got caught on the lift and I was dragged along with the lift for like a hundred meters before someone pressed the emergency stop..." Richard was interrupted by Paul's giggling. ”Hey, I told you not to laugh!”  
  
"I'm not laughing", Paul said but he wasn't exactly convincing as he had to bite his lip to stop himself from giggling. "Okay, I won't laugh again, I promise”, his face was more serious now. ”Are you sure you still want to go? Because it's fine if you don't, we can do something else..."  
  
”No, of course we're going. You've been so excited about this”, Richard said and he couldn't help but smile as he saw Paul's face light up. Ever since Till had announced his idea of a skiing trip, Paul had barely been able to contain his excitement and most days he'd been like a child waiting for his christmas presents. Even though Richard himself wasn't so enthusiastic about skiing, he couldn't deny how endearing Paul looked in his huge skiing jacket and fluffy beanie.  
  
”Let's go then”, Paul held out his hand for Richard to grab, and started dragging him towards the ski lift.  
  
  
***  
  
"Richard, are you coming? There's no other way to get back down than skiing”.  
  
Richard was staring down at the slope that was way too steep for his liking, clutching his ski poles like his life depended on them. Paul was standing a few metres below him, giving him impatient glances.  
  
"Yeah, I just need a minute...” Richard said with a trembling voice as he kept looking at the other skiers heading down the snowy slope so fast that his eyes couldn't almost keep up. ”Fuck, it just looks so fast!”  
  
Paul looked at him with eyebrows raised. "You have no problem with driving a car at 200 kilometres per hour, but you're worried that this is too fast?"  
  
”Fine”, Richard sighed. ”Let's go then, but don't you dare to laugh at me if I fall!”  
  
Paul flashed him an excited grin and before Richard could second-guess the whole thing, Paul was already on his way and Richard had no choice but to follow him. At first it felt terrifying; Richard was used to having a steering wheel to hold on to, and a gearstick and pedals to control his speed. But now he was supposed to do all that with just his legs, and that made him feel helpless and unbalanced. However, it didn't take him long to get the hang of things, and by the time he reached the bottom of the slope, Richard could _almost_ say that he'd enjoyed it.  
  
The rest of the guys were already down there waiting for him, and as Richard finally managed to slow down, nearly colliding with a few people on his way, Paul was almost jumping up and down from excitement.  
  
”It wasn't that bad, was it?” he beamed at Richard, cheeks red from the cold mountain air.  
  
Richard was about to open his mouth to say something, but everyone's attention was shifted to Till, who was now walking towards the ski restaurant with determined steps.  
  
"Till, where are you going?" Schneider yelled after him.  
  
Till gave Schneider a look like he'd just asked something really dumb, and spread his hands. "What does it look like?"  
  
It was still early afternoon, but the loud thumping of the music was carried from inside the restaurant, and it looked like it was already packed with people.  
  
"Seriously? We've barely been skiing for ten minutes", Schneider looked at Till with amusement.  
  
"I don't know about you but I'm only here for the after ski", Till shrugged and continued his way towards the restaurant. Richard couldn't help but laugh at his boss; he remembered how Till had always raved about how he wanted to travel to the Alps to get the authentic Aprés ski experience.  
  
"You go ahead then, we're going to do at least a few more slopes", Paul announced.  
  
After an hour or so, Schneider and Oliver decided that it was time for them to head back to the cabin to make christmas dinner for the rest of the group. Richard wasn't actually convinced that those two were their best cooks, but since nobody else had volunteered, the responsibility of making dinner had fallen upon them. Flake had insisted that they needed to have proper christmas lights in the cabin, so he took it as his mission to go shopping for some decorations.  
  
Even though Richard felt like his legs were close to cramping, he couldn't say no to Paul as he begged him to do one more slope with him. It was already late in the afternoon and it was beginning to get darker as they were sitting in the chairlift on their way up. The scenery was breathtaking with the lights coming from the village and the snowy slopes turning into a shade of blue.  
  
Richard however, was finding it hard to appreciate the view as coldness was already pushing through his layers of clothing and he could feel how sore his legs were. He was eagerly waiting to get back to the cabin, to stuff himself full with delicious food and cuddle with Paul under the blankets for the rest of the evening.  
  
Suddenly the lift started to slow down, even though they were far from being at the top of the slope – and eventually it stopped moving altogether.  
  
”What happened? Why aren't we moving?” Richard looked around in panic.  
  
”Richard calm down”, Paul said and grabbed his hand. ”This is nothing to be worried about. It won't take long before we're moving again”, he assured.  
  
Richard however, wasn't so easily convinced. ”How would you know? What if they just leave us here and we'll freeze to death”, he trembled.  
  
”We're not the only ones up here. Like I said, whatever the problem is, they will fix it in no time”, Paul said and looked at Richard reassuringly.  
  
”I have better things to do than be stuck on a fucking ski lift”, Richard grunted, withdrawing his hand from Paul's. ”I'm cold and hungry and I want to go back to the cabin”.  
  
”You sound like this is my fault?” Paul's voice was full of disbelief.  
  
”Well I never wanted to go skiing in the first place!” Richard snapped. ”I only agreed to this because of you”. The words came out sounding way more harsh than he had intended, and Richard immediately regretted it.  
  
”And I just wanted to spend a nice holiday with you”, Paul said with a frustrated voice, ”But instead I'm stuck on a ski lift with a sulking ten-year-old”.  
  
Richard didn't have the energy to argue, so being the mature person he was, he just crossed his arms and refused to even look at Paul for the entire time they spent trapped on the lift.  
  
  
***  
  
It was already dark as they were finally walking back to the cabin; the moon was casting it's pale light across the valley and the majestic, snow-covered mountains created a beautiful backdrop for the village.  
  
Paul was walking ahead of Richard like he was in a hurry to get away from him, not even looking back to see if he was still there – and Richard couldn't blame him. He knew that he'd acted like an idiot and he had no excuses for his childish behavior. Truth be told, Richard had been on edge for weeks already; probably ever since he'd officially called quits on his racing career. He didn't know what he had expected – well, how could he, because racing had been the center point of his life for over twenty years. Letting go of that was never supposed to be easy.  
  
Still, Richard couldn't shake away the heavy weight inside of him – the weight that was made of uncertainty, frustration and a hint of guilt. He was in a relationship with the most perfect human being that ever existed – half of the time Richard had to pinch himself to realise that he hadn't been dreaming all of it, that Paul was actually with him – but despite all of that happiness, he was still as weak and vulnerable as he'd always been. Probably even more than before, and he hated himself for it.  
  
”Paul, wait!” Richard shouted after him. He just couldn't leave things like this, he couldn't return to the cabin and pretend to be cheerful in front of the boys while knowing that Paul was angry with him.  
  
Paul slowed down and turned around to look at Richard, waiting for him to continue. The snow was making a scrunching sound under his feet as Richard took the last remaining steps until he was standing in front of Paul.  
  
”I'm sorry, okay. I'm sorry I ruined this day for you”, Richard spoke and suddenly he felt so ashamed of his own behavior that he couldn't look Paul in the eyes anymore.  
  
Paul let out a heavy sigh. ”You didn't ruin anything. But I was so excited for this trip and I feel like it's _me_ who's ruining this for you. You don't seem like you're happy to be here”, he concluded with a sad tone in his voice.  
  
”I want to be happy”, Richard begun, feeling the all too familiar guilt stinging in his chest. ”I _am_ happy, it's just that... I've never been too fond of Christmas, to me it's always been just a long break between rally seasons, and I've always felt lonely.”  
  
”Do you feel lonely now?” Paul asked tentatively, and as Richard finally had the courage to look him in the eyes again, he was met with uncertainty and sadness, feelings that he never wanted to see in Paul's eyes.  
  
”Not the same way as I did before”, Richard said gently, and he saw some of the sadness in Paul's eyes melt away. ”But because I won't be competing next year, Christmas feels even more confusing to me. I expected it to be easier this time but it's not, and that's making me so frustrated...”  
  
”Richard, nobody ever said it should be easy”, Paul grabbed Richard's hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. ”Of course this is difficult for you, it's a big change”.  
  
”I know, and I also know that I'm not going to just magically heal overnight, but...” Richard paused for a while, momentarily distracted by the way Paul was stroking the back of his hand with his thumb. Despite of their cold hands, the touch felt comforting and a warm sensation spread through Richard's body.  
  
”I just hate being a burden to you”, he eventually confessed.  
  
Paul immediately stepped closer to Richard, still holding both his hands in his own. ”You could never be a burden to me”. He lowered his head and planted small kisses across Richard's knuckles. ”Not ever”, he repeated between the kisses, and the warm feeling of his mouth on Richard's freezing hands sent a pleasant shiver down his spine.  
  
”Ending a career is a big step, and you're entitled to feel whatever you're feeling. Whether it's sadness, frustration or even loneliness”, Paul assured and stepped even closer to Richard, looking at him with so much tenderness and understanding that Richard felt like his heart was about to burst from it.  
  
”But I'm going to be there for you, if you just let me”.  
  
Richard felt his breath hitch at Paul's words, and he didn't know what to say because at the moment he was just feeling _too much,_ everything felt so strong and yet so fragile at the same time. So Richard did the only thing he was capable of doing; he yanked Paul closer to him and captured his mouth in a deep kiss. Paul let out a muffled sound but he soon melted into Richard's touch, kissing him back with as much force. The air was freezing and Richard knew he was tired and hungry but he couldn't care less; all that mattered was Paul, and how the feeling of his lips ignited a fire inside Richard, a fire that spread through his entire body. Jesus, even now when it was freezing outside and they had multiple layers of clothing between them, Richard was as affected by Paul's touches as always. He would've gladly stood there forever, kissing Paul in the middle of a snowy road, but it was Paul who eventually broke the kiss.  
  
”I thought you were hungry and cold”, he smiled as he leaned his forehead on Richard's.  
  
”I can't help it when you're so irresistible”, Richard said half-jokingly. ”But let's go, I'm dying to see what the guys have come up with”.  
  
Paul snorted. ”I hope it's something edible, because to be honest, I'm not that convinced about their cooking skills...”  
  
  
***  
  
As Richard and Paul finally got to the cabin and opened the door, they were greeted with a smell of burnt food in the air. They paused at the doorway, taking in the sight with shocked expressions on their faces.  
  
"Jesus - what the hell happened here? Why does our kitchen look like a war zone?" Richard managed to say after he'd recovered from the initial shock. His eyes kept roaming around the cabin; a bag of flour had apparently fallen on the floor and it's contents had exploded everywhere, and there was a frying pan on the stove with thick, black smoke rising from it. On top of it all, there was a broken bowl on the floor and remainings of some unidentified dish were scattered all around – some of it was even dripping from the ceiling. Schneider and Oliver were both in the kitchen, looking like they were trying to decorate something that resembled gingerbreads while giggling like little children.  
  
Richard stepped further into the cabin with Paul on his trail, and took a closer look at the mess on the floor and ceiling. "What is that? I mean, what _was_ that?" Paul asked, sounding half amused and half disgusted.  
  
Schneider stumbled from behind the kitchen island, knocking down an empty bottle of glögg on his way. _Jesus christ, how is he this drunk already?_ Richard thought to himself.  
  
"Well, it's fish casserole and it was perfectly fine, until Till here decided to flash his naked butt at me", Schneider informed and made a pouting face.  
  
"What does my naked butt have to do with anything?" Till fumed as he appeared from the bathroom. Richard almost choked on his own spit; Till was completely naked, apart from a disturbingly small leather apron that barely covered his front.  
  
"The fucking bowl slipped from my hands and the fish just exploded everywhere!” Schneider explained with drunken hand gestures.  
  
”Whose idea was it to let you be in charge of dinner...” Richard said while shaking his head. As he let his eyes roam around the mess that his friends had created, he noticed a bunch of empty bottles on the kitchen island. ”Please don't tell me this is what I think it is?”  
  
”What?” Paul asked.  
  
Richard grabbed one of the bottles and brought it to his nose. ”I knew it, it's Till's mysterious glögg”.  
  
”What is that?” Paul asked with an amused tone.  
  
”You don't know about Till's mysterious glögg? Well, let's just say that it's the reason why people are scared of TL Motorsport's christmas parties these days...” Richard explained.  
  
”Hey! There's nothing suspicious about my glögg!” Till grunted.  
  
”We were so thirsty when we got back from skiing so we just drank all of it”, Oliver explained with a slightly drunken voice. ”We didn't know it had that much alcohol in it...”  
  
”That explains the mess...” Richard mumbled to himself.  
  
”Well, at least we have these gingerbreads!” Schneider rejoiced and looked proudly at the result of his and Oliver's work.  
  
Richard stepped closer to inspect the gingerbreads that were spread on the kitchen island. He had to give his friends at least some credit; the gingerbreads weren't burned after all, and they actually smelled delicious. It seemed like Schneider and Oliver had tried to make the cookies in various motorsport-themed shapes; a few of them were the shape of a rally car, although a bit deformed. There was also one huge gingerbread that had _TL Motorsport_ written in white icing.  
  
”What's that supposed to be?” Paul was laughing and pointing at a gingerbread with a suspicious-looking shape.  
  
”Isn't it obvious – it's a gear stick!” Schneider stated proudly.  
  
”Looks more like a dick to me”, Paul giggled.  
  
There was some clattering on the doorway, and they all turned around to see Flake coming in, carrying two large bags that were probably full of different kinds of christmas lights.  
  
”What the hell happened here?” he asked as soon as he saw the mess, dropping the bags on the floor.  
  
”These two rookies drank all of Till's glögg”, Richard explained and pointed at Schneider and Oliver, who were standing behind the kitchen island, trying to look as innocent as possible but failing.  
  
”Oh dear...” Flake shook his head. ”Well, let's see if we can salvage some of the food.”  
  
It turned out that Flake was the best cook out of all of them, and by some miracle he managed to save some of the food that Schneider and Oliver had tried to cook. Those two were banned from the kitchen for the rest of the evening, and so was Till; Flake ordered them to decorate the cabin with the christmas lights he had bought. It probably wasn't the best decision to let three drunken men be in charge of decorating – it was a miracle that none of them broke any bones while trying to hang the lights to the ceiling.  
  
Finally, after a couple of hours, they were gathered around the dining table with a delicious-looking christmas dinner in front of them, and with extravagant christmas lights scattered all around the cabin. At some point, Till brought more bottles of his infamous glögg to the table – it turned out that Schneider and Oliver hadn't found all the hidden bottles. As the evening progressed, each of them started to get a little tipsy – especially Till, who at some point had decided to entertain everybody with some christmas carols, whether they wanted or not.  
  
”Why is it so damn cold in here”, Richard complained later in the evening.  
  
”There's always that sweater”, Paul winked at him, and went to fetch the green sweater from where Richard had abandoned it earlier that day. He threw it at Richard, who kept looking at the sweater with a disgusted look on his face.  
  
”Fine! But just this once”, he said with a defeated tone and pulled the sweater over his head. Richard blamed it on the glögg – not in a million years would he wear that horrendous sweater if he was sober. It was warm though, he had to admit that.  
  
”Just so you know, you look really cute in that sweater”, Paul beamed at him, and leaned closer to whisper on Richard's ear: ”But I'm also dying to drag you upstairs and take it off, with the rest of your clothing”.  
  
Richard's heart skipped a few beats at Paul's words, and he almost choked on the glogg he was sipping. Paul didn't step back but instead he stayed close to Richard, leaving a few kisses on the sensitive skin on his neck. Richard felt his breath hitch, and a tingling sensation was spreading through his entire body. Christ, no matter how much time he'd spent touching Paul during the past weeks, no matter how many days they'd spent not even leaving the bed – still every single touch affected him like he was a teenager.  
  
A smile was tugging on Richard's lips as he looked at Paul, who was almost drowning in his oversized christmas sweater and had traces of gingerbread icing on the side of his mouth.  
  
”I think that I might enjoy christmas this year, just a bit”, Richard said and he saw Paul's face light up with a widest possible smile. Richard was about to lean in and kiss away the gingerbread icing from his lips, but they were interrupted by Till's loud singing that was followed by Schneider's yelling.  
  
”FOR GOD'S SAKE TILL, IF I HAVE TO HEAR _STILLE NACHT_ FOR ONE MORE TIME, I SWEAR I'M GOING TO QUIT TL MOTORSPORT!”

**Author's Note:**

> Merry christmas! :)


End file.
